Speaking, not telling.

It's been kinda a slow couple weeks of writing. The last week of January, I did WIP week and wrote another two chapters on an old story. It's still not done, but the final battle is planned out which is way better than it was two years ago. I've done some more editing on my other story and wrote a little bit more. I really am not liking this chapter and it's not doing what I want, but I think I just have to struggle through to the end of it and then let it sit before I look at it again.

The writing this week is from an early chapter in Twin Tales. I added more because I need to work on adding dialogue rather than telling the reader that the conversation happened.

Favourite writing from this week:

“Knowledge is never a waste. But you probably didn’t think of it because all the books on antidotes are hidden behind the mirror.”

Naturally. Anything that was an antidote to poisons would be considered too close to magic and thus would’ve been destined for the flames of the purge. Once again Merlin sent up a silent prayer of thanks for his father’s foresight to create this secret room.

Hidden behind a mirror than only Merlin could pass through were seven large bookshelves full of books on magic that William and his father had hid when the Purge began. There had been a logical system of organization on the shelves at one point, but Merlin was awful about putting books back in the right place so piles had built up on the ground.

Gently nudging the self-cleaning sword out of his way, he set down the books he had been looking through and started pulling books off the shelf that might relate to antidotes. When he had filled his arms, he returned to the desk in the main library, and William grabbed one off the stack to help him look. They still had until tomorrow but Merlin would also need to catch up on the other chores he’d missed when out on the ride. Not everything could be done with magic.

“Merlin, look at this one.” William pushed the book he was reading to the centre of the table. “It won’t work for everything, but it’s an enchantment to nullify the effects of the most common food poisons.”

“That’d be great.” He scanned the page. “This looks like it’ll detect most of the poisons I check Arthur’s food for anyway and a couple I don’t.”

“And the book suggests casting it on the plate itself. A simple rune will light up to indicate which poison was detected as well.”

“I can hide that with a concealment charm. It’s not a difficult spell. I’ll need to renew it every couple of months to make sure it’s optimal. But this is definitely what I’m looking for.”

“Better test it out in here before you run on down to the kitchens then and place a faulty enchantment on every plate,” William said, standing up from the table. He took out one of their plates and handed it to Merlin. “Go practice on this one. I’ll ask the physician for one of these poisons.”

“I still can’t believe he trusts you sometimes.” Merlin laughed. “It’s a good thing he believes in testing science.”

William smiled in return, a matching mischievous glint in his eyes. “A good thing indeed.”